Improvement in apparatus for evaporating cane-juice



S. A. POCHE.

Evaporating Pan.

Patented Nov. 17, 1868.

- Ira/ucnl'o r.

this difliculty,

stat-ta eluted -S. A. P'OCHE, OF ST. JAMES PARISH, LOUISIANA. Lem PatentNo. 84,134, dated November 17, 1868.

To all whom it may concern Be it lmown that I, S. A. POGHE, of theparish of St. James, and State of Louisiana, have invented a certainnew, useful, and improved Arrangement for Evaporating Cane-J nice,without the use of wood as fuel; and I do hereby declare the followingto be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference beinghadto the annexed drawing, making a partof this specification.

The importance and value of my invention will be more readily andclearly understood if, before entering upon its description, I pointattention to the fact that in the evaporation of cane-juice, to reduceit to sugar, by existing methods, in sets of kettles, coal cannot beused, in consequence of the want of sufiicient flame in its combustionto establish 'auniform heat underneath all the kettles that make up aset, and that hence wood has been hitherto employed exclusively as fuelin the process of reducing canerjuice to the point of granulation by theapplication of heat. But wood is far more costly than coal, and it isbecoming more and more expensive and diificult to procure, becauseof theincreasing distance over which "it must be transported, and the soft andyielding nature of the soil in all the sugarregions of Louisiana, which,it is well known, consists wholly of alluvial deposits; Nor is the timedistant when the culture of sugar can no longer be profitably pursued,unless the use of wood can be dispensed with.

My invention at once opens the way for remedying for it provides for animmediate substitution of coal in lieu of wood, and, at the same time,for an immense saving of fuel, in that it secures the evaporation of the-cane-juice by the heat of the same fire or furnace that generates thesteam that operatesthe sugar or grinding-mill.

But my invention will be better understood by referring to the drawings,on which, at-

Figure 1, is exhibited a perspective view of the same. Figure 2 is across-section through the line a b of fig. 1.

A is a steam-boiler, into which is inserted the usual number of kettlesthat constitute what is usually called a set.

The boiler A has a fiat top, as shown, in order that Q the insertion ofthe kettles may be more easily efi'ccted,

around which there is an upwardly-projecting rim, 0, to prevent waste ofthe juice in case it should rise above the tops of the kettles, by tooactive an ebullition, or, in ordinary language, boil over.

The transverse projections 11, on the occurrence of such an accident,guard against the overflowing of one kettle into another.

In all other respectsthe boiler may be of any approved form, and beprovided,.or not, with fire-fines, according to circumstances.

The tubes f are shown in order to illustrate one form in whichfire-fiues may advantageously be put into the boiler.

Any usual appliance or method of supplying the boiler with water may beemployed, and a safety-valve may be applied by means of a pipe, 4;, orin any other suitable way.

- The grand, or the clarifying-kettle, which is the first and largest ofthe set, and the next one to it, re-- spectively marked l and 2, areprovided with false bottoms, or jackets, as they are technically called,as shown in the case of the first named, at fig. 2. The object of thisprovision is to secure a means of regulating the temperature of thesetwo kettles by opening or closing communication between the spacebetween the jackets and the walls of the kettles, and the boilerspaceproper outside said jackets. This communica tion is established by meansof a valve, g, and a stem,

h, extending outside the shell of the boiler, so that thesugar-maker mayat any time bring the steam into direct contact with the bottom of thekettles in question, or prevent such contact, at his pleasure.

The other kettles of the set do not need and hence none is provided forthem.

The boiler is placed in a proper furnace, as shown at fig. 2, and by anyusual or suitable means is connected with the sugar-mill it is designedto supply with motive-power.

Thejuice is put into the kettles, and treated precisely in the manner asif evaporated by an independent furnace, in a separate set of kettles,as is now universally, practised. I

a jacket,

My invention does not refer to the manner of treating the juice in theprocess of evaporation,- but to the mechanical arrangement I havedescribed, by which I make one furnace do the work of two, and? by usingthe heat of steam in the evaporation of the j nice, I am enabled tosecure a uniform efi'ect throughout the whole set of the kettles, andthus to substitute coal for wood in the manufactiu'e of sugar.

Having thus described my invention,

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The boiler A, when constructed substantially as described, and combinedwith a set of sugar-kettles, as and for the purpose set forth.

S. A. POGHE.

Witnesses:

H. N. JENKINS, H. S. BLooD':

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